Tool for pictures

After you install, all you have to do is right click on one or several image icons and a new "Resize Pictures" item will be displayed on the menu. It has a quick default 640x480 or you can choose from advanced options. It's much faster than resizing with Paint or any other tool I've seen.

This one is worth a look.

• Link to page for Microsoft Image Resizer...

IrfanView is a nice set of utilities, but like all programs with a fair amount of power, it does take a bit of time to learn. Not as much as a full-fledged editor though.

Keep in mind that picutures for the web have two sizes: the 640x480 (or less) pixel size and the file size. Having a slow dial-up connection makes me really like small file size pictures.

Play with the amount of JPEG compression in whatever program you use. Something under 40% is normally good enough for the web. This one is 29Kbytes with the JPEG compression at about 10%

While viewing the pic, select Image/Resize and then specify the size. It maintains the aspect ratio and the pic looks OK. Then you save it using a new name and you are done.

You are probably laundering the pic thru your camera managment software anyhow, so why not use it.

I always reduce pics I post online or email, to about 640x480 because I realize many people are still stuck with a phone modem, and that is as slow as they come.

Charles

Sorry

Don't feel guilty. There are many who don't fully understand the problem or how to deal with it. You are certainly not alone.

Here's my take on the matter:

The newer digital cameras usually take megapixel sized images. They generally are capable of several different resolutions (sizes) in the camera setup routine but they usually have the default as their maximum resolution. That maximum is usually way too large for most web posting or email. It's great for printing out large format (8x10 or so) prints but not for posting. Images that are too large cause excessive download time to view and also require most viewers to have to scroll around both vertically and horizontally to see the whole picture. Those people with dialup connections generally will not wait the lengthy time required to see the large image. Plus if large images are embedded in post threads, it just makes it more difficult for the dialup users to read the posts in the thread, having to wait for the large images to load.

I suspect most viewers of the tractor forums have their computer screen resolutions set to no more than 800x600 pixels. For that resolution, a maximum image size of 640x480 should permit viewing w/o having to scroll around and is faster to download than a larger image. I have found that 400x300 is also a pretty good size for posting. I think that if you upload your images to the image archives on this site they are automatically downsized to a smaller size - sometimes too small :o). If you link them in from another site, they are not adjusted. As an example, here's an image that has a size of 400x300 pixels and is linked in from my own site:

Most image editing software has a lot of bells and whistles in it as Coloken suggests. If you want to investigate something that is free and simple to use, you might want check out dedicated resizing software. I ran across this one a while back. I cannot vouch for it personally since I haven't tried it out but it seems to be simple and to the point. Part of the interest in these forums is in images. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. So don't give up. You'll do just fine after you get the hang of it. It only seems difficult the first time.

Rod

Click, File -- Open from the menu bar,and browse for your photo (make sure you have All Picture Files selected in the drop down box).

Open the picture file.

Click on Edit in the menu bar.

Click on Select All. You will have a dotted line around your picture.

Now select Image from the menu bar, and click on Stretch/Skew. You can type in the size of the picture (in percent) that you want to reduce it to (i.e. 40% horizontal, 40% vertical). If you don't like the results, just select Edit from the menu bar, and click Undo. Once you have the picture the size you want it, save it with a unique file name, such as JD Carburetor reduced image, or something descriptive. Make sure that you also have the colour depth that you want for the picture selected in the drop down box before you save. You can even save it as a black and white if you like. Reducing colour depth makes the file size smaller, and can be done without sacrificing too much detail if done correctly.

I am sure Apple users and Linux/Unix users have a similar program at their disposal.